If it be said that this doctrine amounts to a virtual prohibition of wine and stimulant liquors, I admit at once that, where the whole animal functions go on healthfully and energetically without them, their use is, in my opinion, adverse to the continuance of health. But there are many constitutions so inherently defective in energy, as to derive benefit from a moderate daily allowance of wine; and there are many situations in which even the healthiest derive additional security from its occasional use. If, for example, a healthy person is exposed to unusual and continued exertion in the open air, or to the influence of anxious and depressing watchfulness, a moderate quantity of wine along with his food may become the means of warding off actual disease, and enabling him to bear up uninjured, where without it he would have given way. This preservative influence has been so often experienced, that it is impossible to deny its reality.
While, then, I consider stimulating liquors of every kind as both useless and hurtful, where without them the system is healthful and energetic, I can see no reason why their temperate use in circumstances of an opposite nature ought to be denied. Many weak constitutions and many invalids are benefited by wine, and all that can reasonably be demanded is, that it shall not be abused.
Continued and severe exertion, whether of body or of mind, often exhausts the system so much as to render the temporary use of wine, and even of spirits, not only innocuous, but positively beneficial; but in these cases they should be considered as medicines, and care ought to be taken not to carry the stimulus too far. That, in some circumstances, stimulus is really required, is accordingly shewn by the ease with which the system bears its effects. I have known a delicate lady, during recovery from fever, take to the extent of a bottle of Madeira in twenty-four hours, without producing the least undue excitement of either the mind or the pulse, but rather the contrary—it soothed the mind and reduced the pulse; and this I take to be the true test of its propriety in all circumstances.
The same principle explains the well-known fact that many sportsmen, who, while living a sedentary life in town, are easily affected by even a small quantity of spirits, yet bear triple the quantity, with apparent impunity, under the influence of inspiriting exercise in a pure mountain-air: on resuming their former habits, the spirits again affect them as readily as before.
As a support to the system in cases which require it, wine is in general far preferable to spirits of any description. The former, when seasonably used, communicates a more healthful and permanent tone to the frame; while spirits impart a strong and unnatural stimulus, which is sooner or later followed by collapse and debility—and hence the incessant craving for more when the system has once been accustomed to them. Ardent spirits, therefore, ought to be used only as a medical remedy. At present, however, this is so far from being the case, that they are resorted to on all occasions, afflictive and convivial, as if they were a specific against every evil. Among the poor, especially, whisky or gin is considered a sovereign remedy for every disease. Even to infants it is administered with a recklessness which savours strongly of barbarism, and the consequences are as might be expected—deplorable. Among the higher classes, too, brandy and strong stimuli are in more frequent use than they ought to be; and medical men should be on their guard against directly or indirectly encouraging, in their patients, a practice so utterly destructive to both physical and moral happiness. For, in some instances, it is to be feared that the stimulant bitters and anti-spasmodics, so generally had recourse to in indigestion and nervous diseases, have had an unsuspected share in the formation of a habit of intemperance.
Of late years, great exertions have been made, both in this country and in America, to warn the public against indulging in the use of ardent spirits; and powerful medical, as well as moral facts and arguments, have been adduced to demonstrate the unspeakably greater advantages of temperance. These efforts have been followed with astonishing success, and the good which has been already effected is immense. It seems to me, however, that much more might be accomplished, if we did not confine ourselves so exclusively to the mere inculcation of abstinence from intoxicating liquors, but concerned ourselves more in improving the general character, as the surest road to reformation, and in providing resources by means of which the reformation, when once effected, might be fully confirmed. The temperance which is produced by elevation of mind, and an improved state of moral feeling, will be not only much more beneficial in its consequences, but infinitely more proof against temptations, than that which is observed merely in fulfilment of a vow; and unless something be made to come in the place of the enjoyment which is withdrawn, the danger of a relapse will continue to be great. The importance of this principle is perhaps not sufficiently recognised in the otherwise valuable labours of Temperance Societies.
Many persons imagine that spirits, taken in moderate quantity, cannot be injurious, because they feel no immediate bad effects from their use. If the fundamental principle which I have advanced is sound, and if all the functions of the system are already vigorously executed without the aid of spirits, their use can be followed by only one effect—morbid excitement; and it is in vain to contend against this obvious truth. The evil attending their unnecessary use may not be felt at the moment, but nevertheless it is there; and for demonstrative proof of the fact, we are again indebted to Dr Beaumont. On examining St Martin’s stomach after he had been indulging freely in ardent spirits for several days, Dr Beaumont found its mucous membrane covered with erythematic (inflammatory) and aphthous (ulcerous) patches, the secretions vitiated, and the gastric juice diminished in quantity, viscid, and unhealthy; although St Martin still complained of nothing, not even of impaired appetite. Two days later, when the state of matters was aggravated, “the inner membrane of the stomach was unusually morbid, the erythematic appearance more extensive, the spots more livid than usual; from the surface of some of them exuded small drops of grumous blood; the aphthous patches were larger and more numerous,—the mucous covering thicker than common, and the gastric secretions much more vitiated. The gastric fluids extracted were mixed with a large proportion of thick ropy mucus, and a considerable muco-purulent discharge slightly tinged with blood, resembling the discharge from the bowels in some cases of dysentery. Notwithstanding this diseased appearance of the stomach, no very essential aberration of its functions was manifested. St Martin complained of no symptoms indicating any general derangement of the system, except an uneasy sensation and a tenderness at the pit of the stomach, and some vertigo, with dimness and yellowness of vision, on stooping down and rising again; had a thin yellowish-brown coat on his tongue, and his countenance was rather sallow; pulse uniform and regular, appetite good; rests quietly, and sleeps as usual.”[61]
I have marked part of this quotation in italics, because it cannot be too attentively considered by those who contend that the stimulus of spirits is not injurious to the stomach or general health, unless where the mischief shews itself by palpable external signs. Here we have incontestible proof, that disease of the stomach was induced, and going on from bad to worse, in consequence of indulgence in ardent spirits, although no prominent symptom made its appearance, and St Martin was in his general habits a healthy and sober man. And if such be the results of a few days of intemperance in a person of a sound constitution, it is impossible to deny that continued indulgence must be followed by more serious evils, whether these shew themselves from the first by marked external signs or not.
After a few days of low diet and the use of mild diluents, the coats of St Martin’s stomach were seen to resume their healthy appearance; the secretions became natural, the gastric juice clear and abundant, and the appetite voracious. Dr Beaumont adds, that, in the course of his experiments, diseased appearances of a similar kind were frequently observed—generally, but not always, after some appreciable cause. “Improper indulgence in eating and drinking has been the most common precursor of these diseased conditions of the coats of the stomach. The free use of ardent spirits, wine, beer, or any intoxicating liquor, when continued for some days, has invariably produced these morbid changes. Eating voraciously or to excess, swallowing food coarsely masticated or too fast,” “almost invariably produce similar effects, if repeated a number of times in close succession.” (P. 239.) These observations require no comment; their practical bearing must be obvious to all who are willing to perceive it.
Dr Beaumont had also frequent occasion to remark, that, when stomachic disorder attended with febrile symptoms were present, the mucous coat of the stomach presented distinct appearances of disease. He frequently saw it, for example, red, irritable, and dry; and on the food touching it no gastric juice exuded, and consequently any food taken lay long undigested. But after the diseased action was subdued by regimen and medicine, the gastric juice again flowed readily, and digestion went on as vigorously as before. Even anger and violent mental emotions sometimes produced these appearances, and gave rise to temporary indigestion. These observations shew the futility, not to say mischief, of administering food during fever and other diseases by way of supporting the strength, when, from the deficiency of the gastric juice, it cannot be digested, and can only add to the existing irritation. In this state, however, bland fluids are appropriate; because they allay irritation, and are almost entirely absorbed, without requiring to be digested.